Waldheim Ignores Controversy, Claims Vatican Journey A Success

VATICAN CITY — Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, appearing indifferent to controversy over his official visit with the Pope, Friday went back for a private tour of the Vatican.

Jovial and talking freely about his plans to visit other countries this year, Waldheim blamed ``touring demonstrators who go around the world`` for the anti-Waldheim rallies outside the Vatican during and after his audience with Pope John Paul II on Thursday.

The Pope`s meeting with Waldheim has been condemned by Jewish groups and Israel.

The former United Nations Secretary General also blamed the media for propagating ``the lie that I knew about war crimes`` while he was a lieutenant attached to an army intelligence unit during the Balkan campaign, when Nazi troops committed atrocities and mass deportations.

Visibly relieved that the invitation to the Vatican had ended a one year period of international quarantine, the Austrian president told newsmen: ``I will visit Jordan in the next weeks and after that other countries.``

Waldheim, who has been banned from entering the United States, had not left Austria since being swept to victory in a national election a year ago. His trip to Vatican City was his first official foreign journey since becoming president.

The meeting was condemned Thursday by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir as an outrageous act that had dealt a ``terrible, horrifying blow`` to confidence in human justice.

While the Austrian president went sightseeing in the Old Teutonic College inside the walls, Vatican officials continued to stress that Pope John Paul II received him as the head of the Republic of Austria, a courtesy that had nothing to do with accusations by the World Jewish Congress that Waldheim participated in Nazi war crimes and lied about his past.

``The Pope was returning the courtesy he received when he visited Austria in 1983,`` a Vatican statement said.

The Austrian president was escorted by an impressive motorcade of police cars although there were no repetitions of the anti-Waldheim demonstrations on Thursday when he saw the Pope for a controversial 35-minute meeting.

Friday morning Waldheim became the first head of state in 150 years to visit the Church of Maria dell Anima (Mary of the Soul) where Adrian VI, the only non-Italian pope in church history before Pope John Paul II, was buried in 1523. Adrian VI was a German; the current Pope is Polish.

The Austrian president was scheduled to return to Vienna Friday night after what his aides described ``a highly successful visit to the Vatican.``